REINDEER GAMES (2000) [Director’s Cut]

I think you can argue that, with the possible exception of DIAL CODE SANTA CLAUS, 2000’s REINDEER GAMES is the action movie most directly tied to Christmas. Make no mistake, the Yuletide event is prominent in all those Shane Black films and your HOMEs ALONE, but REINDEER GAMES not only takes place during the holiday season, but also involves a…let’s say clever?…character naming convention, Santa suits, a ton of decorations, carol music, and so much dialogue directly referencing the holiday and various related elements. Does that make it better than the other films? No. No it does not. But is it a goofy bonus addition that makes for some entertaining if incredibly baffling moments? You bet your sweet bippy it does.

This snowfall film noir has lots of twists and turns that I will do my best to avoid in this write-up because I’m guessing most people haven’t seen this film. At least, not the proper version that director John Frankenheimer and writer Ehren Kruger intended.

A very quick synopsis is that Rudy (Ben Affleck) and cellmate Nick (James Frain) are set to be released from prison, where Rudy can’t wait to enjoy some pecan pie and returning to his family. Nick, meanwhile, is looking forward to meeting up with Ashley (Charlize Theron), his penpal with whom he’s in love. Unfortunately, Nick gets got in the cafeteria and Rudy can’t help but give in to temptation and pretend to be Nick in order to get with Ashley.

Things take a turn for the naughty when Ashley’s brother, Monster (Gary Sinise), turns up with his crew looking to recruit “Nick” to help them rob the casino where the actual Nick once worked. Rudy has to figure his way out of this Christmess™or end up dead as a coffin nail.

I should probably point out here that I’m a Ben Affleck apologist. Has he always delivered great performances or chosen good projects? No, of course not. But that’s true of many actors. I don’t know if it’s his Massachusetts roots, the fact he was in a lot of my favorite films during my formative cinephile years, or simply that he seems genuinely charming yet flawed like the best of people. Whatever the reason, I’ll always find myself rooting for the dude.

But, even with my affection for the actor/writer/director, I can still point out his missteps and where things went a bit askew for Affleck in REINDEER GAMES.

And one of them is that, for much of the film, usually when he’s on the receiving end of some longwinded threat or diatribe or beating, Affleck has resting stupid face.

It’s the look of someone with a horrible concussion trying to apply the Quadratic Equation—slightly furrowed brow, open mouth breathing, eyes darting around yet also somehow lifeless. It’s an unfortunate choice by the actor and the director for allowing it to happen.

He also is in his ARMAGEDDON, DAREDEVIL, SUM OF ALL FEARS, action blockbuster mode which means lots of gritted death, jutted jaw, and screaming.

All that being said…Affleck is still the bomb in REINDEER GAMES.

The entire cast is stacked with incredible actors, mostly character actors, who all bring a nice new flavor to this criminal stew with memorable turns even in fairly stock roles. Besides those already mentioned, there’s Dennis Farina, Donal Logue, Clarence Williams III, Danny Trejo, and, Truck Turner himself, Isaac Hayes (for almost literally three minutes of screentime).

Each are playing characters (or variations of them) that they’ve played before and yet still find nuances that make their turns in REINDEER GAMES stand apart from their work in SNATCH, BLADE, MANIAC COP 2, HEAT, and RETURN TO SLEEPAWAY CAMP (respectively) amongst many others.

That really fuels much of the film because, while there is some dope ass action sequences in the movie, it’s mostly a tense game of reversal of fortunes that’s more in line with the film noirs and pulp stories than other bombastic films with a whole crew wielding shotguns and a daring rescue beneath the ice.

With its ratatat dialogue, colorful lived in characters, and Michigan setting—plus the fact that Monster and his crew are usually gun runners going from Florida to Detroit—it feels like an Elmore Leonard novel the master never wrote. It’s not as clever or grounded as Leonard’s work, but there are enough shades in it to feel like deliberate allusions and homages if nothing else.

Speaking of allusions…as mentioned before there is a lot of Christmas in this Christmas action movie. To an almost awkward degree. The Santa gimmick—using Santa suits as the ultimate disguises on Christmas Eve—is very fun (and seems like a callback to THE SILENT PARTNER, a great ‘70s crime film that too few people have seen). The various repeat of “Little Drummer Boy” is a nice touch. The running gag that Clarence Williams III keeps calling Santa’s helpers “dwarves” instead of “elves”, a delightful bit. And all of the crooks work in references to familiar carols, seasonal sayings, and whatnot into their dialogue. Very much doing all it can to scream at the audience “do you know it’s Christmastime at all?!?”

But that adherence to the Yuletide theme leads to awkward moments where these references feel forced and weird. Or these allusions become too much in too short a time that it borders on those Christian movies that have to remind viewers how cool Jesus is. And then there’s the titular line. Yes, there’s a titular line in REINDEER GAMES and it doesn’t really work:

It almost seems like it works, right? If you squint and either over analyze or don’t think about it at all, it makes sense and is a fine nod to the season while setting up an interesting dynamic. But…no. Its asymptotic approach to logic never arrives and feels almost like the line came before the film, so it couldn’t be ditched since it was the nexus of the whole project. Like someone dared screenwriter Ehren Kruger to write a movie around the phrase “reindeer games”, which isn’t really that common a saying, and he did the best he could.

There are some deeper layers that tie in to other famous reindeer as explored in this clip from podcast How Did This Get Made? where they discuss REINDEER GAMES (both the film and the term). Below is that hilarious (and mind-blowing) bit from the episode as animated by Jay Marks.

Yep. RUDY has ties to NICK and is constantly an outsider to the brutal criminals that exclude him from their inner circle or even a basic level of respect. This is from the director of THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE and RONIN, by the way. I feel like once you deal with the insanity of Brando and Kilmer on ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU, one’s perspective tends to shift. Still, weird flex, Frankenheimer.

In an era where films are being reassessed and reappraised, hopefully REINDEER GAMES will, too. It is honestly fun and while the constant crisscross and reversals aren’t necessarily surprising, their fueled by a lot of fun acting and inventive sequences. Also, most haven’t seen the Director’s Cut of the film as the Weinsteins chopped up the original upon release (as they were wont to do). This version restores a lot of the plot and character work that ends up making REINDEER GAMES’ narrative actually cohesive and the story have real propulsion and intrigue.

To see the differences in the versions, not to mention a lot of behind the scenes/making of information, GoodBadFlicks (aka Cecil Trachenburg) has an exemplary video about all of it—though be warned that it will spoil everything if you haven’t seen the film yet.

And you should! There’s always the regular Shane Black films and DIE HARD and whatnot. REINDEER GAMES deserves to be a part of that conversation because it is so weird in great ways, goofy in entertaining ways, and engaging in clever ways. Stop playing reindeer games with the usual suspects of Christmas action films and instead seek out this under-discussed gem.

…Oh also there’s a bunch of naked Charlize Theron and way more Affleck butt (and potential taint) than you’d expect from any film ever.

Merry Christmas, Affleck’s taint!